MiraVista Receives $630,000 in Federal & State Research Grants

National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the State of Indiana Awarded MiraVista Diagnostics More Than $630,000 in Grant Funding to Support Fungal Disease Research to Develop a New Rapid Detection Test for Coccidioidomycosis

MiraVista Diagnostics, LLC (MiraVista), a developer of diagnostic tests for fungal diseases, announced it is the recipient of $632,312.00 in combined federal and state research grants designated for feasibility studies to develop a novel, rapid test for diagnosis of coccidioidomycosis. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the auspices of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded MiraVista a $582,312.00 Phase I research grant and the State of Indiana through partnership with the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) and Elevate Ventures provided $50,000 in matching funds.

“We are honored to receive federal and state awarded funding of our studies. Coccidioidomycosis causes significant morbidity and mortality, especially in immunocompromised patients, and current detection techniques can take 2 to 5 days to provide results.  Our aim is to develop a rapid, simple test that can provide results in hours, not days. This has potential to positively impact speed of diagnosis and treatment, contributing to improved patient outcomes and decreased healthcare costs,” states Lawrence Joseph Wheat, MD, MiraVista Diagnostics’ founder and scientist who pioneered development of tests for diagnosis of serious fungal infections.

This federal and state funded research project moves MiraVista closer to its goal of developing a new, rapid coccidioidomycosis detection test and commercializing it as a lateral flow device, which functions similarly to a home pregnancy test.  The device will be utilized in hospitals when patients are evaluated for coccidioidomycosis to deliver faster test results and ultimately expedite diagnosis, allow for earlier treatment, improve health outcomes and reduce medical costs. Coccidioidomycosis, also known as Valley Fever, is a fungal infection endemic to the southwestern United States and arid regions of Mexico, Central America and South America.

ABOUT MIRAVISTA DIAGNOSTICS

MiraVista Diagnostics, LLC (MiraVista) specializes in development of diagnostic tests for serious fungal diseases including aspergillosis, candidiasis, coccidioidomycosis, (also called Valley Fever), cryptococcosis and histoplasmosis. The company processes more than 110,000 diagnostic tests per year at its onsite CLIA accredited clinical laboratory and it is ISO 13485 certified to design, manufacture and distribute in vitro diagnostic test kits for fungal diseases. MiraVista Diagnostics is headquartered in Indianapolis and was founded in 2002 by Dr. Wheat, MD, whose research team developed the first antigen test for diagnosis of histoplasmosis in 1986 and the first antigen test for diagnosis of coccidioidomycosis in 2007. To learn more about MiraVista, please visit www.miravistalabs.com or call 866-647-2847.

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